Thanks to Jim Brand our story has a very happy ending!
When Jim Brand, our Keller Williams Agent, called us a few weeks after settlement we were just days away from moving in. New floors had been installed in almost every room, kitchen cabinets had been replaced with ones more to our liking and fresh paint was on most of the walls. I thanked Jim again. Not only had he found Betty and me the home of our dreams, we wound up getting it at a great price too!
I’m Brian Wallace. Our story didn’t start that way. Maybe you’ll find a little bit of what you’re thinking about wrapped inside ours.
We owned a nice single home in New Jersey that was getting more expensive for us to carry every year. This economy forced us like many others to rethink our priorities and make better long term choices. My wife Betty and I had no clue where to begin. Finally we just sat down together and nailed down what we wanted to accomplish. The list was short but ambitious. It reflected our intense commitment to our family’s future.
We hammered out these top three goals to meet for moving to make sense for us:
- Our new home must be no more than 45 minutes from our jobs in Princeton
- The monthly carrying costs must be low enough to allow Betty to stop working when we grow our family
- We preferred to be closer to relatives in Yardley, PA
We put our house up for sale with a local real estate office. At first we looked in familiar areas of New Jersey with our listing agent but weren’t finding acceptable houses that were more affordable. We told our realtor we thought PA might offer more options and we wanted to widen our search. He said he had just heard great things from clients that had worked with Realtor Jim Brand and put us in contact with each other.
Connecting with Jim was a stroke of luck.
He listened as we laid but what was important to us. Right away we felt comfortable with his genuine interest in helping us achieve our goals instead of just selling us a house.
While we were still checking out houses in NJ, Jim was researching Bucks County homes and e-mailing us updates everyday. Some he would screen himself before bringing us to look. Soon we found we were spending 2 to 3 days a week looking in the New Hope, Yardley, Newtown area.
He helped us find four places really close to what we told him we wanted. One was offered by an agent in Jim’s office but he never pressured us to choose it. Instead we had Jim prepare an offer for a townhouse we had seen. Negotiations got within a $5000 difference but when we couldn’t come to an agreement we decided to walk away.
Jim found us another townhouse in a neighborhood we fell in love with. It seemed perfect so to avoid lengthy negotiations, we submitted a full price offer. We were shocked to learn we lost this one too after 7 other offers came in at the same time.
While we were disappointed, Jim was still looking out for us.
Jim drove around and discovered a newly listed three bedroom single family home not far from the townhouse we just missed. It was being sold by a third party company that specialized in properties acquired at sheriff sales. They represented the person who bought the rights but did not yet have clear title to it. The place needed some work and we worried about the red tape that could be involved but we saw a great opportunity to meet more than all of our goals.
Now we had made two offers already that fell through on homes we would have liked but none we would call perfect. Throughout the process Jim kept saying…
“Things happen for a reason. We just haven’t found your home yet.”
We saw it, fell in love and immediately put in an offer. When Jim submitted it they said they had another offer and asked if this was our best. Jim reported back and we began to panic. We had finally found the perfect house and were determined not to lose it to someone else. We huddled with Jim and prepared a higher offer. And then we waited.
A few days later Jim called with the fabulous news- we bought the house…
and even better news, the seller accepted the first offer at their original price. Their second, higher offer hadn’t made it through. Oh yeah, there was lots of red tape and delays while the seller waited for the title to be able to sell it to us. We moved in with relatives for 30 days until the paperwork could be finalized.
We’re grateful for Jim’s persistence and patience as he guided us through this important event in our lives. He’s professional, friendly and works tirelessly to satisfy his clients.
Betty and I couldn’t be happier and we highly recommend Jim Brand to help you.
And oh yeah. After putting just 20% down, lowering our monthly carrying costs, renovating and updating our new home before we moved in and banking the balance of our proceeds from the sale of our New Jersey house, we achieved all our important goals.
It all starts with a plan and finding the right real estate professional to rely on.
